Apple admits to slowing down old iPhone models

Publish Date

Friday, 22 December 2017, 10:53AM

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Apple has admitted to slowing down older iPhones, but they claim it's for a good reason.

The feature introduced last year on the iPhone 6, 6S and SE to protect against problems caused by ageing batteries. The iPhone 7 is now also affected and can be controlled via software updates made by Apple, the most recent being iOS 11.2.

Apple said it slowed down phones that have older batteries, batteries with low charge or that are cold:

“Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices.”

The company explained that when a battery is in a poor condition it may not be able to supply the required maximum current demanded by the phone’s processor at full speed. If that happens, the iPhone can shut down unexpectedly to protect the internal components.

So basically, when a phone gets old, Apple will slow it down to savour the battery and ensure a continuation of overall functionality of the phone.

“Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6S and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions,” said an Apple spokesperson. “We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”